


The Climb

by imaginationtherapy



Series: The Kaleidoscope Project [12]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Climbing, Mental Illness, Nature, Poems, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 15:32:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17123999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginationtherapy/pseuds/imaginationtherapy
Summary: Start out at the base of a mountain, dark and dreary as the morning. Return from your climb, renewed, having found yourself along the way.





	The Climb

Start out at the base of a mountain  
Dreary cold day as lifeless as you  
Stare up into wet dripping trees  
Look around and see faces of strangers  
Arm’s length away, no, never much closer.  
Alone, unsupported, you stand and you wonder  
What changed?

One lonely gold leaf shimmers down  
Prompts a flash of a world weary smile  
Remembering back to when you were free  
Before all the storms had wiped you clean  
Of colors, bright days, joyful laughter  
Now lonely, lifeless and dead, one foot in front of the other  
You climb.

The gear on your back clogs you lungs,  
Shoulders sag under unbearable weight.  
Without it you’d never survive  
But with it you can’t even breathe.  
Weight—like these years they say you will need  
To live all the lives that you want and buy all the things that you should—  
Kills you.

An accusing rain starts to soften  
As the trail climbs into the pines  
Slowly the spears turn to glitter  
And a white coat lays on the trees  
Something inside you awakens  
A rusty old door starts to creak, you feel your eyes open wide  
You smile.

The night, it only grows colder  
You huddle next to the glow  
While snowflakes fight off the evil  
You feel your fear start to freeze  
Encased in an icy white prison.  
Something inside you releases, a gentle explosion of warmth  
You’re free.

Descent into sunshine, snow melts away  
A spirit bounds down the mountain  
That a dead soul had climbed yesterday  
Trees sing out their greeting, the river gurgles—delight  
The beauty revealing a dance you’d forgotten  
In the maze of the trees and the silence of the night you have found once again  
Your self.


End file.
